"Has been imposed upon by me," replied Volkert, "like yourself, whom I had given the lie at F----, in your and your friend's presence. I will give you all the information you desire, and at the same time a short sketch of my life, as well as it is in my power in my present deplorable situation. I wish most ardently I had done what I always intended to do, and set down in writing those events, and the memoirs of my life; they undoubtedly would be very instructive, and greatly lessen the number of impostors, and those that are imposed upon."
"Here he stopped, and, having mused awhile, began his narrative, which, indeed, was very defective, but satisfactory enough for me.
"I am," thus Volkert began, "a native of England, my father died when I was not quite ten years old, and left me an helpless orphan, without either fortune or near relations. A rich Dutchman being moved by my helpless situation, took me in his house, and, leaving England the year following, carried me over with him to the Hague.
"This worthy man gave me a very liberal education, and when I was thirteen years old took me in his counting-house; but alas! he died before he could establish my fortune as he intended to do.
"His son, who carried on his father's business, had never been partial to me, and found a pretext to quarrel with me, and to send me away. A rich nobleman, just going to set out for Germany, wanted a servant, who occasionally would act as secretary, and I was glad to accept his offer to take me in his service. He directed his way to K----, where his father was one of the ministers of state.
"My young master appeared to be little inclined to qualify himself for state business, being possessed of a very small stock of ambition, and entirely addicted to the study of the occult sciences, which had engaged his attention so much, that he was unfit for anything else. I soon was infected with an ardent desire to become his pupil, and, after a few months" instruction, was as great a fool as himself.
"It would be too tedious if I was to relate all our fruitless endeavours to effect the apparition of a spirit, and I was soon convinced that it lay not in the power of man to lord over these bodiless beings. My master, however, continued his mysterious operations day and night with an indefatigable ardour.
"It is very natural, that it at length came into my head to profit by his superstitious enthusiasm, and that I eagerly seized every opportunity to impose upon a man, who promised to fall an easy sacrifice to art and cunning, having great reason to expect that such an attempt would ensure me his affection, and promote my fortune rapidly.
"One night as he was conjuring up his guardian angel with much impatience, I entered his room, telling him that all his efforts would be in vain, because he was not acquainted with the proper means of forcing the inhabitants of the other world to make their appearance.
"Gazing at me with wonder and surprise, he inquired whether I had improved so much in the occult sciences that I could effect what he so eagerly desired. I neither denied nor confirmed his question, but told him that I would give him the next day a specimen of my skill in Necromancy.
"It was an easy task to impose on my credulous enthusiastic Count, having secured the assistance of a fellow-servant. We resided at a country-seat his mother had left him, which was the fittest place in the world for the execution of our design. Having succeeded better than I at first expected, I made him my dupe above a twelve-month, and grew at last so bold and impudent that the Count could not but perceive my juggling tricks, and instantly sent me away.
"The good credulous man has certainly been convinced afterwards, that the lesson I gave him by my cheats deserved the warmest gratitude.
"I had saved a pretty sum of money during my stay with the Count, and being used to an idle life, had not the least thought of looking about for another master. I went back to H----, where I abandoned myself to gambling, drinking, and all sorts of dissipation, until all my money was spent, and no other means of getting an honest livelihood left, than to try my fortune in the army.
"A recruiting officer paid me a hundred dollars for my liberty, and I cheerfully enlisted under the banner of Mars.
"I had received the promise to be made a serjeant, but saw myself at first very much disappointed, being forced to serve as a common soldier. Being, however, a good penman, well skilled in casting accounts, and leading a sober and regular life, I soon rose so high in the good opinion of my superiors, that I was appointed serjeant after nine months" service. I certainly should have been promoted higher if I had continued to be zealous in the service, sober and attentive to my superiors, but my patience was exhausted, and I relapsed again into my former dissipations.
"A dissolute life requires money, and the desire of getting it plunges him who has once been led astray from the path of virtue soon into his former errors. I had once more recourse to my juggling tricks, pretending to possess a supernatural skill in detecting thefts, in tossing up the cup, and in telling people's fortunes; I conjured up spirits, dispelled the power of witchcraft, and raised up the dead. In short, I did everything in my power to drain the purses of the weak and credulous.
"This trade was profitable, and very advantageous in many respects; but it lost me the esteem of my superiors, stained my character, poisoned my heart, and reduced me at last to that despicable sort of people whose heedlessness bids defiance to every obstacle, and who have nothing more at heart than how they may enrich themselves to the detriment of their fellow creatures. In short, I became a rogue of the blackest die.
"It was natural that my cheats now and again miscarried before I arrived at that degree of skill, which, in later years, has crowned with success most of my roguish tricks. My superiors, who had warned me many a time against committing such villainous actions, became at last tired of admonishing and correcting me by words, and a spirit which I had conjured up played his part so bad, that they found themselves obliged to make an example of me, and to banish me the country.
"A healthy well-made man of my age had no need to be uneasy about getting into the service of any foreign power. I had taken a liking to the life of a soldier, and found soon an opportunity of enlisting under the banners of Austria.
"A few days after I had began my peregrination, I met with a recruiting officer of that country, who proposed me to enter the Austrian service, but, being grown wiser by experience, I at first feigned to dislike the military profession, and succeeded so well that the officer at last threw a hundred ducats upon the table, assuring me, upon his salvation, that he never had paid such a price to a recruit.
"Now I thought it high time to strain the strings a little lower, agreed to his terms, and told him that I had been serjeant in the Hanoverian service. Having given him a specimen of my skill in penmanship, I requested him to recommend me to his commanding officer; he promised it and was as good as his word. The general received me exceeding well, and I occupied my former post, as serjeant, before a year was elapsed.
"Having been sent away with disgrace from H----, I had taken a firm resolution to abstain in future from all fraudulent, juggling tricks, and kept my resolution firmly a long while, behaving eight years as it meets a good soldier.
"I abstained entirely from art and fraud, minded my duty, and thus ingratiated myself with my superiors to such a degree that I kept firmly my ground, in spite of many complaints which afterwards were made against me. An unhappy accident induced me to have recourse again to my former juggling tricks, and thus to acquire once more the title of a Necromancer.
"I will tell you all the particulars of that adventure, in order to enliven a little my tedious narrative, and to convince you that nothing but necessity could tempt me to engage once more in rogueries which already had destroyed my fortune once, and deprived me of my good character and a honourable employment.
"I was quartered in a house that was said to be haunted. It was rumoured about, that time out of mind it had been haunted by a spirit who disturbed the tranquillity of the inhabitants, though he never had injured anybody; he had now, for about six months, alarmed very much the people that
lived in the house, and the report of that extraordinary perturbance had caused such a general fear that most of the rooms were unoccupied.
"Tempted by the cheapness of the lodgings, and desirous to get at the bottom of the alarming apparitions which had given so much uneasiness to the inhabitants of that house, I went to the owner, and agreed with him to pay five dollars a year for the best room; I instantly took possession of my apartment, and, to my greatest surprise, perceived a long while not the least trace of any supernatural inhabitant.
"My landlord always disappointed my inquiries by vague ambiguous answers; and his daughter, who, as it was rumoured, had suffered most from the dreadful apparition, replied with nothing but a deep sigh, when I interrogated her about the nocturnal phantom.
"That girl had attracted my attention in a high degree, as soon as I had seen her, being adorned with charms which conquered every heart, almost irresistibly, because she seemed to be entirely unconscious of their winning powers. Her face was rather pale, her constitution weak and sickly, and although she could not be called a beauty, yet I thought her very amiable, and more bewitching than any woman my eyes had ever beheld. I never had tasted the heavenly bliss of innocent virtuous love before my thirty-ninth year, but I must confess this girl had infused into my heart, at first sight, sensations I had always been an utter stranger to.
"Helen, this was her name, her father, and myself, occupied the first floor of the haunted house, and the second floor was inhabited by a young secretary; all the other rooms, a back parlour on the ground floor where the servants lived excepted, were unoccupied.
"The secretary seemed to have no concern for what was passing around him, his whole attention being engaged by his writings, and I happened only now and then to see him in the company of my landlord and his fair daughter, whom he treated as utter strangers. However, I watched my opportunity better than him, and was never so happy as when I could spend a few hours in conversation with the charming maid. I always pretended to have something to say to the father, taking care never to come to his apartment but when he was abroad.
"However, all my anxious endeavours to make a tender impression on my charmer's heart proved abortive; Helen neither seemed to take the least notice of the attention I paid her, nor to be pleased with my eager zeal to engage her favour. The discourses I addressed to her consisted mostly in monologues, interrupted by frequent pauses; and her replies in a pantomime, composed of a silent shaking or nodding of the head, accompanied every now and then by a gentle sigh, which of course made me, by degrees, tired of conversing with her, though my heart at first shrunk back at the thought of giving up such a lovely object.
"I had now been many weeks in the house without either hearing or seeing the least thing of the phantom, the tranquillity of the mansion not having been interrupted for a single moment. The domestics of my landlord were highly surprised, ascribing the peace which they enjoyed to me; even my landlord thought that I had chased away the dread phantom, and oftentimes thanked me warmly for having restored the tranquillity of his house.
"Dear friend," said he one evening to me, shaking me by the hand with evident marks of satisfaction, "to you I owe the peace and tranquillity I now enjoy; if the nightly phantom shall continue to stay away, my house will not longer remain unoccupied, and you shall live in it without paying rent as long as it shall be in my possession."
"These words he spoke in the presence of his daughter, who fetched a deep melancholy sigh.
"A few days after that trifling accident, as it appeared to me, I came home late in the night, and was going to lay myself down to rest without calling for a candle, every body being gone to bed, when I heard gentle footsteps before my door; I started up, and the steps advanced nearer and nearer. Now they seemed to retreat, and silence reigned around a while.
"I listened with eager expectation, and at once heard again the sound of fearful steps and somebody moving the latch of my door, which now was opened slowly and shut again. I was just going to see what these strange proceedings meant, when a white figure entered my apartment.
"Who art thou?" exclaimed I, with a furious voice, seizing the phantom with a powerful hand.
"Jesu Maria!" groaned the apparition, "for God's sake be quiet."
"Methought I knew the voice, and, asking again who it was that dared to disturb my rest, the ghost whispered, in a faltering accent, "Be quiet, dear Sir, I am Helen!"
"Half frantic with rapture, I pressed the trembling girl to my panting bosom, printed a glowing kiss on her sweet lips, and asked her what fortunate accident had procured me the happiness of seeing her so late in the night.
"Oh!" sighed the lovely girl, "you shall save me from destruction."
"With all my heart," answered I, "if it is in my power."
"It is in your power," resumed my sweet visitor, "my father confides in you; O, save me! save me!"
"I entreated her to tell me the source of her affliction, and how I could be serviceable to her, upon which she sat herself down and began as follows:--
"The apparition which has lately disturbed the tranquillity of our house is my lover, Henry--the secretary in the second floor. Last autumn he asked me in marriage from my father, who refused to comply with his suit, and the unhappy man has been hurried by despair into a resolution which has destroyed the peace of my mind, and has made him likewise miserable.
"Our house has been reported to be haunted by a ghost these many years, because it was formerly a cloister. My Henry took hold of that superstitious rumour, turning it to his advantage, and, alas! accomplished his design without difficulty. My heart was thrilled with terror at first, and several nights elapsed in unspeakable horror, before I knew that my Henry was the spectre that visited me every night, and made my blood run chill with awful dread. At length he undeceived me, but, alas! it was then too late; my virgin honour was gone for ever. I feel the dreadful consequences of my guilty connexion with the unhappy man, and disgrace and ruin will seize me with merciless fangs, if you do not save me. O, Mr. Volkert! do not refuse your assistance to a poor helpless girl."
"Moved by this woeful speech I promised to procure the consent of her father to her marriage with the secretary, might it cost whatever it would. Her gratitude knew no bounds, she almost suffocated me by her endearments, and left me with these words:--"My happiness, my life, and my honour, are in your power; without your assistance destruction will seize me, and eternal misery will be my dreadful lot."
"After a cool deliberation, I grew sensible that I had engaged in a very difficult undertaking. By what natural means could the father of the seduced girl be persuaded to sanction her love? How was it possible to shake the firm resolution of a rigorous head-strong man, if a medium congenial to his manner of thinking was not to be employed which might surprise and prompt him to come to our terms for the sake of his own interest. This medium was no other than what he himself had suggested to me--his belief in the supernaturalness of the apparition, and the power he supposed me to have over it.
"I could not get a wink of sleep during the remainder of the night, racking my brain and tormenting my imagination in vain. Whenever I fancied to have hit on a feasible expedient, it soon vanished like a deluding dream, as soon as I applied the undeceiving torch of reason, and I saw but too clearly that nothing would extricate me from the maze I was bewildered in but the magic wand.
"I was engaged for three days in a most distressing conflict with my rebelling conscience, and several times on the brink of shifting quarters, and taking a house far enough removed from my then abode, but my resolution was always shaken as soon as it was formed, when the doleful situation of the poor distressed girl recurred to my mind, imploring my assistance with a pallid, ghastly look.
"It is true the lover of the afflicted, disconsolate girl did not deserve my assistance; however, poor Helen would certainly have been lost without my assistance. These considerations conquered at last every hesitation which reason and honesty had suggested to my troubled mind,
and on the fourth morning I went to work.
"I entered at nine o'clock the apartment of my landlord, and could not but observe that Helen's cheeks were tinged with a crimson hue of inward satisfaction; her aspect and her looks supported my resolution.
"Sir," said I, "the tranquillity of your house is dear to me, and I have had the good fortune, last night, to hit upon means, the application of which will certainly secure it for ever."
"The simple, superstitious man embraced me with visible marks of gratitude, exclaiming in an ecstasy of joy, "O, tell me, tell me, what must I do?"
"Then he ordered his daughter to fetch a bottle of Hungarian wine, pressing me to drink; but I declined it, resuming--
"Sir, the ghost that disturbs the peace of your house--"
"Have you seen him?" he interrupted me, with a ghastly look.
"I will see him," replied I; "he is a malicious being, and has given me much trouble; yet I trust I shall be able to get the better of him by the assistance of the occult knowledge which I possess."
"How, how!" stammered the simpleton; "then you are indeed the man I always took you for: then you are really one of those great mortals who understand the wonderful art of necromancy. How happy I am to meet at last, so unexpectedly, with the man I have always most ardently wished to find out. Tell me, dear friend, what must we do?"
"Nothing in the world," answered I, "but conjure up in due form that turbulent spirit."
"And will you undertake to perform that difficult, dangerous task?"
"Why not?"
"And when, dear sir, do you intend to do me that inestimable favour?"
"The ensuing night, if you will consent to it, for without your leave I can do nothing."
"O, that you have! that you have! You may do whatever you please; I will consent to anything, if I can get rid of that infernal disturber of my nocturnal rest!"
"I left the credulous man with sensations which sprung from pity rather than exultation at my easy-gotten victory. I instantly made every preparation for executing my roguish plan, being assisted by the secretary, and having won over to my purpose the servants of the house, everything succeeded to admiration.
The Complete Northanger Horrid Novel Collection (9 Books of Gothic Romance and Horror) Page 131